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Wendy Papadopoulos
Wendy Papadopoulos '''(née Crozier') had an affair with Ken Barlow in 1989 which led to his first divorce from Deirdre. Biography 1989-1990: Affair with Ken Barlow Wendy met Ken professionally through her position as Planning Committee secretary for Weatherfield Council, when Ken was the owner of the ''Weatherfield Recorder. Wendy and Ken found that they shared their disdain of the secrecy and corruption of the Council and came up with a scheme where Wendy passed on details of Council plans to the Recorder, giving the paper an edge over the more popular Gazette free sheet. Ken didn't tell Deirdre the source of the leaks as she worked on the Council and he feared she would expose Wendy. When Deirdre herself came under suspicion of being Ken's mole, Ken printed information on council plans she wasn't aware of to absolve her, but when senior councillors pressurized Deirdre to find out the truth, Ken confessed to her on the condition that she didn't tell her bosses. Deirdre kept her promise but warned Ken and Wendy to stay away from each other. Realising that Deirdre was serious, Ken and Wendy cut ties. For a while, Wendy and Ken didn't see each other but when Deirdre told Ken about Mike Baldwin selling Baldwin's Casuals to Maurice Jones, he got the full story out of Wendy that Maurice was also buying the Community Centre. Chairman Peter Reynolds was about to sack Deirdre, forcing her to name Wendy as Ken's mole. Wendy was sacked for gross misconduct but a sympathetic Ken, who felt responsible for her losing her job, offered her a position with the Recorder. Wendy accepted. At a time when he was rowing a lot with Deirdre, Ken's good relationship with Wendy was an antidote to how he was treated at home. When Deirdre forgot Ken's birthday, Wendy laid on a meal for him and they shared a kiss. They then entered into an affair - and both were equally keen; Wendy decided to leave the Recorder so that Ken could use having to run the office himself as an excuse to stay late, when he was actually seeing her and letting the paper go to ruin. This was a good arrangement for Wendy and Ken in the early days of their affair but Wendy grew dissatisfied with being Ken's bit on the side and told him to tell Deirdre the truth. Ken agreed but when Wendy saw Deirdre and noticed she was still in the dark, Wendy told Ken not to call her until he'd sorted his marriage out. Ken still didn't tell Deirdre but Wendy missed him too much and they spent Christmas Eve together. When Wendy next saw Ken, on New Year's Eve, he told her that Deirdre knew but that he didn't know what to do. Deirdre and Wendy refused to share Ken but he was incapable of choosing between them; Deirdre eventually decided for him and threw him out of their house. Wendy took him in at 47 Church Road and supported him by helping him with the Recorder while he worked out the arrangements of his split from Deirdre but as he'd mortgaged their house to buy the paper, Deirdre was demanding half of the Recorder's profits and Ken was forced to sell to the Weatherfield Gazette to pay off the remainder of No.1's mortgage. Ken and Wendy were kept on in their current positions by the new owners. With Ken came his daughter Tracy, who formed a good relationship with Wendy when visiting her and Ken, much to Deirdre's displeasure. In March 1990, Ken resigned from the Gazette when the editor, Jeff Richmond, criticised him for being too taken up by personal problems. Wendy was offered Ken's job and she accepted. Their relationship deteriorated over the next two months through the strain of Ken's unemployment and the continued involvement of Deirdre and Tracy in their lives. In April, Wendy insisted that Ken meet her stepmother Sylvia Crozier. He had to cancel a meeting with Tracy to be there and ended up rowing with Wendy in front of Sylvia, embarrassing her. When Ken sunk into a depression which Wendy couldn't lift, Ken admitted to her that he should never have left Deirdre and then walked out on Wendy. 1991-2012: Later years After being alone for a year, Wendy met a man named Christos Papadopoulos and got married in 1991. They moved away to Norfolk and spent fifteen years there, but when Christos developed lung cancer and eventually passed away, Wendy moved back to the Manchester area. When Ken stood for Chair of Governors at Bessie Street School in September 2012, he was shocked to be reunited with Wendy as she was also a governor at the school. Ken was voted in, although he planned to pack in the job as he felt he couldn't work with Wendy. However, they met up for a drink to talk things over, and Ken decided to keep the job although didn't tell Deirdre who he had been remarried to for seven years. Wendy also told Ken about what she had been up to since they separated, including her marriage to Christos and his later passing. When Ken got drunk one night and didn't come home, Deirdre became suspicious that they had rekindled their affair, and she went with Rita Tanner to pay Wendy a visit. It had been entirely innocent, Ken having slept on Wendy's sofa, but it turned out that Wendy did want to reignite things, and she lied to Deirdre, saying they'd slept together. A distraught Ken told Wendy that he didn't want to see her again even as a friend, and Deirdre realised that he'd been telling the truth all along. See also *Full list of appearances External links *Wendy Crozier at Corrie.net Category:Coronation Street characters Category:1989 minor characters Category:1990 minor characters Category:2012 minor characters Category:Secretaries Category:1991 marriages